Atlas 7B Disassembly and Teardown! Pic Heavy!

[Weldo]

Got a quick video of it moving! It seems to move pretty well, of course I have no precedent to which I can compare it.

I still need to add the ram wipers, all the oil cups and the tool holder parts, but it's satisfying to see it move on its own for the first time!

I also need to do a full lube job. I've been oiling parts as I assemble them but I've not done a full lubing in situ.

 

[frugalguido]

Thanks for the info. So yours has oil cups or just holes?

I did notice the rounded over bits on the shaft but I didn't think it was really a problem. The final engagement points are unchanged so would it really matter that it's rounded over in the interim? I could probably dab a little hard face weld on there buy I didn't think it was very critical. Any thoughts?

Screws actually , But after consulting a friend who was an application engineer for Chevron, he told me to grease the motor bearings and also the roller bearings on the counter shaft, plus the main bull wheel gear bearings, so I don't use oil anymore, (he sent me the grease that he recommended ).
My old shaft looks like it was repaired with weld too. I think the two buttons that ride on that area of the shaft are hardened from Atlas, so it wears the shaft. Here is a pic of the old and the new shaft.

Here is pic of my restored motor for reference.

 

[Weldo]

Thanks for the pics! Nice work on the shaft and the motor looks brand new!

I could see the application of grease being preferred. Usually roller type bearings are packed with grease, like the wheel bearings on a car, unless they can be fully bathed in oil at all times, like in a transmission case.

I believe the big tapered roller bearings for the bull gear are lubed via grease cups on the original design. So there's that.

Now you got me thinking of using grease on the counter shaft. When I reassembled the countershaft I filled the casting with oil, but with only felt seals there was a puddle of oil beneath the shaft the next morning. The use of grease in that application would be beneficial for sure.

 

[Weldo]

So how did you address the greasing of your countershaft? Drill and tap for zerks?

 

[frugalguido]

No zerks, just packed the rollers, I think that it's ok considering where is the grease going to go. On my Deckel mills, that use roller bearings on the spindles, they are lubed the same way. You just dissemble occasionally, clean and repack. On the big tapered roller bearings for the bull gear, I think looking at the Atlas manual, they show oil as the lube, which to me never made sense, how is oil getting to the bearings unless you put a bunch of oil in there, the oil git opening is between the two bearings? And it's not going to stay in there , no seals anywhere. To me grease makes more sense, treat them like you said, wheel bearings.

 

[Weldo]

You're right, it is oil on the bull gear bearings. It's the pinion that has the grease cups.

Honestly I'm torn. Grease does seem to make more sense on the big roller bearings but I wonder why oil was spec'd? Maybe there was no way to use a grease cup? Did the Atlas shaper pre-date zerk fittings? Maybe they intended the oil to leak out and lube other parts along the way, like the feed gear housing?

On my 10" Atlas lathe the roller bearings call for oil. Every so often I add some but I never see it leaking out but there are stamped seals on either side of each bearing. That leads me to believe that the spindle bearings are riding in a constant bath of oil, I suppose. But like you said above, there's not really any sealing on the shaper.

For now I think I'll lube as the manual intended just because I'm so close to getting it all back together. If we'd had this discussion a few months ago I may have taken a different route. I appreciate it greatly, though. I'm always ready and willing to learn new things and broaden my horizons.

 

[Weldo]

I added the oil cups and ram wipers the other day.

There wasn't a cup spec'd for this hole but I added one just for the heck of it.

One on either side of the ram ways.

One for the bull gear bearing housing.

And one on the ram position lock.

I still need a right angle one for the counter shaft.

And the ram wipers with new felts.

 

[Weldo]

The tool head.

First off, does anyone know if there should be a rocker for the tool post? The manual doesn't show one but why would the washer be concave?

The tool post slips out. Mine was tight and required tapping out.

Remove the double nuts on the clapper pivot pin.

The pin was tapped out.

The pin is tapered.

The clapper comes off readily. It's hard to notice in the pic below but there was a small amount of mushrooming on the very corners of the clapper. This was causing it to stick in its collapsed position. I believe this mushrooming resulted from the tool post washer being installed and tightened with the concave side DOWN. Thus an extreme amount of pressure was placed on just the very corners of the clapper. I had to file it flat.

The underside of the clapper has a shallow counterbore for the tool post.

Lock screw.

I then began cranking the handle to separate the two parts of the head.

It got tight at one point so the gibs were loosened.

With the gibs loose the two components slid apart easily by turning the threaded rod.

 

[Weldo]

Now the mounting bolts can be removed.

And the brass feed nut can be removed as well. I had to tap it out due to sticky, dried up oil.

The base is now bare.

The gibs are removed from the slide.

 

[Weldo]

Now the slide can be stripped.

I started by removing the threaded rod assembly with two bolts through the plate.

The assembly slides out.

The nut on the end is loosed.

And the handle with its key can come off.

Next, the dial and nut thread off. The dial should be able to freely spin about the nut, but mine was stuck tight, so the dial and nut came off together as one unit. Of course the lock screw is loose. The parts were still stuck fast.

I then loosened the lock screw on the dial and tapped the pieces apart. I used the base since it had a perfectly sized hole for pressing the nut out. In retrospect I should have used a punch that more closely matched the size of the nut. With the small punch in the pic I made a tiny dent in the top of the threads of the nut which made reinstallation difficult. I ended up hitting the nut with a countersink to remove the small dent.

The separate nut and dial.

Finally the mounting plate and a small spacer.

The order of parts.